Runaways
by littledaybreaker
Summary: Based on a prompt. Julie gets pregnant after the lake and she and Matt are left to deal with the fallout.
1. Runaways

A/N: Shortly after I published "Anyone Who Had a Heart…" I got a PM from the lovely Emolichic1 asking me if I would write an epic fanfic based about Julie getting pregnant after the lake, and I was more than happy to oblige. This will take place pretty close to S.3 canon with some changes to accommodate a baby, although this particular chapter is pulled from whole cloth.

_Blonde hair blowing in the summer wind_

_a blue eyed girl playing in the sand_

_I'd been on her trail for a little while_

_But that was the night I broke down and held my hand_

_A teenage rush, she said "ain't we all just runaways? we got time, but that ain't much, we can't wait till tomorrow." _

~The Killers, Runaways

On a completely unremarkable afternoon three weeks after their late night swim, Julie didn't show up for lunch.

She and Matt had been eating lunch together every day since they had formally gotten back together, with him picking her up from her english class by hovering shyly in the doorway until she came out, hair bouncing, beaming at him and full of stories. They ate and they talked and then he walked her to biology before he headed off to Earth Science, but on this particular afternoon, she simply didn't come out of the classroom. He waited until the last person filed out—a quiet mousy girl whose name he thought might be Alana—and grabbed her by the arm. She looked startled, and he let go, a little embarrassed of his own force. "Uh, sorry," he said, and she just stared at him, wide-eyed, as if she couldn't believe a member of the football team was talking to her. "Have you seen Julie?" he asked. "We were supposed to meet for lunch."

Alana shook her head. "She left a couple minutes early, but she didn't say where she was going."

Matt tried to quell the instantaneous panic that came—that something had happened, or that she had just randomly up and changed her mind despite having just been kissing on him that morning—and thanked Alana, walking as quickly as possible toward the cafeteria. Maybe she'd decided to leave early to surprise him, or maybe she'd had to go to the bathroom and just decided to not go back to class because there wasn't a lot of time left. Whatever it was, she was surely going to show back up in the cafeteria. She had to. There was no reason why she'd miss a date.

Julie was not in the cafeteria when Matt got there, but Landry was, and Matt all but flagged him down. "Have you seen Julie?"

"Well hi to you too, Matt," Landry said dryly. "Nope. I thought she was coming with you?"

"She wasn't in english." He grabbed a tray, getting in the lunch line. "She didn't text me or anything either, she just…wasn't there."

Landry assumed an expression of mock horror. "Julie Taylor? Missing class? Why I never."

"Shut up." Matt lifted the plate off of the hood, thanking the lunch lady and making his way over to their usual table. "Maybe she's working on homework or something, I'm sure she'll catch up."

* * *

><p>"So why," Tyra asked, "was it necessary for me to drive all over creation to a Wal Mart on our lunch when we very well could have been doing something useful with our time? Especially because we haven't seen each other in, oh, forever?"<p>

Julie shrugged, picking at her thumbnail. "I missed you," she explained, "and it's kind of nice to go for a drive once in awhile."

Tyra looked over at her, giving her the patented Tyra Collette "I might not be a genius but I sure as hell ain't stupid" look. "What's the _actual _reason we're driving into Austin to go to a Wal Mart?" she asked.

Julie blushed aggressively and started chewing on the thumbnail she had just finished picking at, staring down at her shoes as she whispered, "I'm late."

Tyra gawped. "You're what?"

"I—I was supposed to get my period last week and I didn't."

"Well shit." Tyra smacked the steering wheel. "Do you think you're…?"

"_I don__'__t know_," Julie snapped, and then immediately regretted her snappishness. "I don't know," she said again, softer. "I…maybe. I threw up the other morning, but maybe that was something else. I just want to be sure, now."

When Tyra looked over at her again, it was gentler, more sympathetic. "God, if I wasn't driving and not really in the mood to kill us both, I would so be hugging you right now."

Julie laughed, and then was surprised to find that her eyes were filled up with tears. "You're the best friend I've ever had, you know that?"

Now it was Tyra's turn to have to wipe tears out of her eyes, smiling mistily out at the road. "You're the best friend I've ever had, Taylor. Even if I made some bad choices and got you in trouble, you're the only real friend I've ever had."

Julie buried her face in her hands. "Shut _up!_" she said, half laughing, half crying. "I can't handle people being mushy right now!"

Tyra giggled, pulling into the Wal Mart parking lot and cutting the engine. "Come on, baby momma."

* * *

><p>By the end of lunch, Julie still hadn't shown up. Matt had pretty much surrendered to the fact that she'd left him and he would never see her again just like everyone else in his life when his phone pinged with a text from Julie. "was sick went home," it said, "love u". He let out his breath, relieved that it was something as simple as being sick. How silly of him to worry. "missed u," he texted back, "ill come see u after?"<p>

The next text came back almost instantly, a "let u know", and Matt felt his heart sink with disappointment but sent back "feel better", dropping his phone in his backpack and promptly forgetting all about it.

* * *

><p>"Who knew there were so many different kinds of pregnancy tests?"<p>

Julie bit her lip, staring at the rows and rows of different tests, suddenly realizing that if she _was _pregnant, she was already in so far over her head that she couldn't even tread water. If she couldn't pick out a pregnancy test, how was she supposed to raise a baby? "Um…this one. This one has words. Let's do this one." Grabbing it off the shelf, she raced toward the checkouts, moving as if someone had pressed fast-forward on her, and Tyra grabbed her arm. "Hey," she said, "hold on a second."

Julie turned to face her, her eyes wide with fear, close to crying again. "What? What."

Tyra grabbed her and pulled her close, hugging her tight enough that Julie made a choking sound. "I love you, okay? And no matter what happens, I'm gonna be here. And if Saracen isn't? I'll cut his balls off."

Julie let out a choked laugh, trying to hold it together. "I love you, too," she mumbled into Tyra's shoulder. "Thank you for being there for me."

"That's what friends are for," Tyra replied. "Now go pee on that stick before I explode."

Ten minutes later, Julie emerged from the bathroom and sunk down on the bench next to Tyra with her head in her hands, and Tyra didn't even have to ask, just wrapped her arms around Julie's shoulders. "Hey," she said, "Don't you cry. Remember what I said, okay? I'm here for you, you've always got me on your team."

Julie nodded without looking up. "I know," she whispered. "I know. Can you please take me home?"

* * *

><p>Matt was laying stretched out on his bed, half-reading his assigned english book, when his phone buzzed with a text. "can u meet me?" it said, and then another followed in quick succession, "at alamo freeze."<p>

He jumped up, typing back a quick reply and pulling on his pants without even bothering to question what was going on.

When he arrived at Alamo Freeze Julie was already there, slumped down in a booth, her face all puffy from crying, and Matt rushed over, holding out his arms for her immediately. "What's wrong? Is everybody okay? Your mom? Your dad? Gracie?"

Julie collapsed into his arms and sobbed, crying steadily for what felt like eternity while Matt, terrified, held her and rocked her, stroking her hair. Finally, she lifted her head, looked up at him, and asked, "Do you love me?"

Matt replied without hesitation, "Of course I do. I've loved you for a long time, Jules."

"Good." She took a deep breath and then said the three little words that were going to change the course of their entire lives. "Matt, I'm pregnant."


	2. We Run

Author's note: No real notes on this one. I haven't written a chaptered story in a long time so resisting the temptation to write it all out and tie it up with a neat little bow is a fun challenge for me! I do love reading all the comment suggestions so feel free to leave more of those if you'd like to. I'm taking them all into consideration, and there's a couple that are going to show up later that haven't shown up yet. ;) Stay tuned!

_Snake oil and roses, pockets of dirt_

_Hands of a fortune-teller's son_

_Young love shaking the earth like a heart shot out of a gun_

_Lips like gravity pull me under _

_Reckless weather on his breath_

_Smells like rain, hits like thunder, a storm is comin', I got nothin' left._

~Sugarland, _"__We Run_"

Matt stared blankly at Julie, trying to process what she was saying to him. "You—uh—_what_?"

For a moment, Julie looked a little irritated, as if he should have already _known _this and that he was just being slow in order to make her repeat herself, and then did an about face, wordlessly looking down and rummaging through her bag to present a pregnancy test, a little shyly, as if she knew that she was holding their entire future in her hand. Matt stared at it, taking in deep, slow breaths. His head was spinning, he felt like he was going to be sick, and he knew that Julie was looking at him with those big sad eyes, imploring him to _say something_. Finally, he did. "Shit. What are we going to do?"

Julie burst into tears.

* * *

><p>They drove back out to the lake and sat in the car for a long time, sitting without touching and staring out at the lake, both of them lost in their own private worlds, until Julie finally said, "I think I want to keep it" and Matt said, "yeah, me too," and then leaned across the console to kiss her. When they broke the kiss, she was crying again and he cupped her face, looking at her like he was a little afraid.<p>

"It's okay," she said, wiping her eyes, "It's probably normal. Mom cried all the time when she was pregnant with Gracie."

That made Matt quiet, pensive. "Are we really going to have a baby? I mean, can we even take care of a baby? How are we going to afford to buy it diapers and food? I have 40 dollars in my bank account right now. I work at a fast food restaurant. I can't even afford to buy name brand macaroni and cheese, how am I supposed to give a baby everything they need?" It was his turn to start to cry, now, Julie's turn to sit helplessly in the passenger seat and watch him without knowing how to answer his questions. Finally, she said, "I don't know how any of this is going to work, but I know that nobody will ever be a better dad than you, not even my _own _dad, and I want to do this with you. So can we just try and sleep on all the questions and know we'll figure it out?" She hesitated. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I love you and we can do this."

Matt let out a breath he hadn't even really realized he was holding. "I love you," he echoed, and then, "we can do this."

Julie laughed a little—maybe slightly bitterly, just in spite of herself—and said, "Go team."

He leaned over and kissed her. He was beginning to realize that she just might be right.

* * *

><p>"You know it's after midnight, right?" Street's sleepy voice on the other end of the phone sounded half-amused, half-annoyed.<p>

"Yeah, I know. I need to talk to you."

"Well, I figured you weren't calling me to say hi at 12:45 in the morning, what's up? If this is about football, though, I'm hanging up. _That_ can wait until morning."

Matt hesitated. "It's about being a father."

When Jason spoke again, his voice sounded significantly more alert. "What?"

"Um. Julie's pregnant."

There was a long, long pause on the other end of the phone. "Julie _Taylor_?"

"Is there another Julie? Yes, Julie Taylor."

Another pause. "Well, first, congratulations on getting back together."

In spite of himself, Matt smiled. "Thanks."

"Second, did you just find out? What are you guys going to do? You're still in high school, right? You didn't graduate when I wasn't looking, did you?"

"No," Matt replied, resisting the temptation to tack a _sir _on the end—Jason was still something of a mythical figure to him, and it made him nervous to be talking to him at all, much less about this. "But I was hoping you could give me some advice. Can you, I mean, we want to keep the baby and I mean, I'm just worried it's not the right decision and how do you _know_."

Jason's pauses were becoming increasingly more disconcerting. "Well, first off, does she want to?"

It was Matt's turn for a pause. "Yes."

"Then half the battle is over. But I know you've still got Coach to grapple with, so I guess what I'll say is that this is your baby, yours and Julie's, not Coach's, and it's your decision to make. Sometimes, especially when it comes to making your family, you have to do the scary thing that feels right and not the safe thing that feels wrong. So go with your gut, and everything else will work out. Maybe not the way you think it will, but it will. Does that make sense?"

Matt let his breath out. "Yeah. Yeah it does. I—thanks, Jason."

"No problem, Saracen. If you need anything else, let me know. Just maybe not at midnight, okay?"

* * *

><p>When Julie didn't show up for school at all the next morning, Matt didn't even bother to make a panicked circuit. He just decided to cut his 9 am biology class and climb through Julie's window, to find her sitting up in bed, still in her pajamas, reading a book.<p>

"I told mom I was sick," she explained. "Which wasn't a lie, I spent about an hour throwing up, so thanks."

Matt kicked off his shoes, climbing in next to her and resting his head on her shoulder. "Sorry."

Julie grinned—mischievously, almost. "No you aren't."

Wrapping his arm around her waist, Matt's hand came to rest on her abdomen, right below her belly button, where he imagined their baby was already starting to form, little arms and legs and a head and—stop. "No, you're right," he agreed. "I'm not sorry about this."

Julie's hand came to rest over his. "Me, either."

He kissed the side of her head. "So, you still think we can do this?"

"Yeah. We can. And we are."

"We are," he echoed. "I—so I think I'm going to take more hours at work, and I'll figure out what to do with Grandma. Maybe we can just move into the house? I don't know how I'm going to do school _and _work _and _Grandma _and _the baby, but, I don't know. Maybe I'll drop out."

"You're not dropping out," Julie closed her book and gave him one of her _please stop being an idiot _looks. "If I can possibly stand the smell of appetizers…" she looked vaguely nauseated at the idea of appetizers, which didn't seem to bode well, "then I'll work more too. Maybe we can take shifts with Grandma or see if my parents will help pay for help with her, and we'll go to school and work and just…figure it out. Because that's what we do, and because I want this baby."

Matt leaned over to kiss her. This time it was his turn to say, "go team."

* * *

><p>Two days later, Matt and Julie sat opposite her parents at Ray's BBQ, fidgeting and refolding their napkins and dedicating at least five minutes each to picking up every single crayon Gracie flung, until finally, Coach said, "Okay, you two, I know you didn't just invite us out here because you had a hankering for ribs. Spit it out."<p>

"Well, technically…" Julie started, and then realized that right now she needed every one of the cards to be in her favour, and somehow she figured that sassing her father was _not _going to accomplish that. "…no, we didn't."

"We have something to tell you," Matt said, reaching down to retrieve a crayon.

"Y'all aren't getting married, are you?" Tami asked, sounding alarmed. "Because no member of our family is getting married before they finish high school. It's not gonna happen."

"Nobody's getting married, mom." Julie glanced at Matt, and he nodded, reaching for her hand. "But we do have to tell you something, and I hope that you understand, and that you aren't mad, and that you're going to help us and not just get mad, because we could really use your help right now." She swallowed. "I'm, I'm pregnant."

The silence at the table was overwhelming. It felt like the entire restaurant had fallen silent and that everyone was staring at them. "You're _what_?" Coach finally said.

"Pregnant," Julie said to the table.

"And when did _that _happen?" Coach asked, staring at Matt with such intensity that Matt was certain he was going to hit him.

"We—we found out a couple of days ago," Julie said, still staring at the table, and the way she was breathing, Matt knew she was about to cry. He put a hand on her back, rubbing it back and forth in small circles.

There was another of those eerie silences. Julie finally added, "We want to keep it."

Tami and Coach shared a long look, and Tami finally said, "Thank you for being honest with us. We can talk more about this when we get home, but as your mother, who loves and cares about you, I can't in good faith encourage you to do that. We can make a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and they can talk to you about your options there, but Julie, you are _not _keeping this baby."

Julie, without warning, turned and bolted from the table, leaving Matt to sit in stunned silence for several long moments before he finally said, "I better go find her," and took off after her without so much as looking back.


	3. Knocked Up

A/N: this took me FOREVER to write. I knew what I wanted to happen with it, but I was having a hard time getting it the way I wanted it—I am nothing if not an eternal perfectionist. Also, I hope nobody objects, but apparently this is going to end up with a little Tyra/Landry subplot. Because I recently rewatched the entire series and I'm kind of really mad they didn't end up together forever, lol. Anyway, I apologize for the delay in getting this up and I anticipate more regular chapter updating in the future! Hope y'all enjoy.

_I don't care what nobody says, we're gonna have a baby_

_Taking off in a Coupe de Ville, she's bundled up on navy_

_She don't care what her momma says, no, she's gonna have my baby_

_Taking all I have to take, this taking's gonna shake me._

~Kings of Leon, _Knocked Up_

"Honey, what in the _hell _are we supposed to do?"

After Julie's bombshell in the restaurant, the Taylor's had paid and left as quickly as possible, although they hadn't gone home—instead, they had driven around for what felt like hours, until Gracie was asleep in the back seat with the DVD menu for _Cars _playing on repeat through the stereo, and now they sat in the driveway with the lights off, staring at each other.

"I have no idea," Eric said, glancing back at Gracie in the back seat. "You think she would have _learned _by now? I thought we raised her smarter than that?"

Tami leaned her head back against the headrest. "I don't know, I don't—is this our fault? I mean, did we do something wrong?"

Eric said nothing, just stared out at the garage door. There was relative silence for a few moments, and finally Tami asked, "Do you think I overreacted?"

Nothing.

"I know I did but you agree with me, right? She can't have that baby, we can't raise another baby, she isn't even finished high school yet, how's she going to go to college? She's throwing her entire future away? Not on my watch."

"Honey, it's not that I don't agree with you," Eric finally said, "it's that you know, and I know, that whatever Julie makes up her mind to is what she makes up her mind to and we can't do anything except be there for her and let her make her own mistakes—aw, honey, don't _cry_." He leaned across the console to hold her head.

"I'm sorry, sorry," she wiped at her eyes, "I just wanted _more _for her."

"I know, honey." Eric pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "I did, too. But we're just gonna have to love her and support her and the rest will fall into place. So let's go in there and see if we can't figure this out as a family, okay?"

* * *

><p>In the house, Julie and Matt were sitting on the couch, Julie's head on Matt's shoulder, Matt's arms wrapped protectively around her. He was murmuring inaudibly to her, and Tami could hear Julie sobbing.<p>

"Honey?" she said tentatively. "Can we talk to you?"

"No."

Tami took a deep breath and tried again. "Y'all two? You and Matt."

Pause. "Okay. Fine."

Tentatively, Tami sat down on the entertainment console facing them, waiting for Eric to come back from putting Gracie to bed. Eventually he emerged to sit stony-faced next to Tami, staring past them.

"So," he said after a long pause. "Let's talk about this."

Julie scooted closer to Matt. "We're keeping the baby."

Eric ran his fingers through his hair. "Now honey, let's talk about it. We aren't gonna yell or argue, we're just gonna talk about it."

Sitting up a little straighter, Julie folded her arms across her chest. "You can talk all you want but you're not going to change our minds."

Desperately, Eric looked over at Matt. "Matt?"

Matt bit his lip, looked down and shrugged. Eric sighed.

"Honey," Tami began. "I'm sorry, I know I overreacted."

"Thank you. Can we leave now?"

"But…"

Julie rolled her eyes.

"No, don't you roll your eyes at me. Just listen, okay? Having a baby is a huge undertaking at any age, but the younger you are the harder it is. You're still in high school. How are you two going to support a baby? Have you thought about school? How are you going to finish school, what about college? I'm not saying you need to terminate the pregnancy, but you need to think about your options here. We could put you in touch with an adoption agency or…"

Julie glared. "I told you. We're keeping the baby. I'm going to try to graduate early, and I'll get a job and do online classes for college, and Matt is looking for another job, one that pays better, and we'll live with Matt's grandma for a little while and look for a place…"

"Matt?" Eric asked, looking expectantly at him.

Matt shrugged, finding it nearly impossible to look Coach in the eye. Like he'd let him down again, only this time there was no coming back from it. "That's what we talked about, sir."

Eric ran his hand through his hair—it was apparent that there was no winning this one. They had made up their mind, prepared their offensive strategy, and it was out of his hands. He looked over at Tami, her face as grim as his, clearly experiencing identical feelings of defeat. Matt and Julie were looking at each other, too, but it was different—softer, hopeful, and so full of love that Eric felt his expression soften a little.

"Okay," he said, finally. "Here's how it's going to be. We can't afford to support you financially, but we will do our best to help you in whatever way we can. Julie, you and your mom can make a doctor's appointment. Matt, I'll see what I can do to get you a better job. But you have to _promise _us you'll stay in school, and you have to _promise _you're going to work hard and support yourselves. You can't go back and change this, it's permanent, so you're 100% sure this is what y'all want to do?"

Julie and Matt glanced at each other, and Matt gave Julie's hand a squeeze. "Yes."

"Then all right. Come here." He hugged them both. "Matt? Do you want to stay here tonight? It's getting late, and I guess you can't get into any more trouble than y'all are already in."

None of them could stop themselves laughing as they hugged and said their goodnights.

* * *

><p>"So what happened?" Tyra stirred her coke with her straw, biting on it. "Did your mom freak out?"<p>

"Uh-huh." Julie pushed her fries around on her plate, suddenly queasy at the sight of them—they'd sounded so _good _on the menu. "She wanted me to have an abortion and she was like, yelling in the restaurant and it was really embarrassing. But then me and Matt left the restaurant and went home and when they came back like two hours later they changed their minds."

Tyra raised her eyebrows, considering this. "Sooo, you're keeping it?"

Julie nodded. "Yeah."

"Oh my God. My little Julie is becoming a mother."

Julie rolled her eyes. "Shut up," she said, giggling.

Tyra got up from the table to hug her. "I just can't believe _you _got knocked up before I did," she said, and both she and Julie dissolved into laughter.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you're going to be a dad." Landry stared out at the lake. "Like, you are actually going to have a child. That you will be responsible for."<p>

"I know." Matt couldn't help smiling a little—every time he thought about it, it just made him feel _happy_. "But, I mean, how hard could it be? Grandma."

Landry nodded. "Yeah, I guess. But at least she wipes her own butt."

Matt audibly groaned. "Please don't make me think about that."

Landry shrugged. "I'm just saying!"

"And I'm just saying you're an idiot," Matt retorted, and then got quiet for a minute. "Julie's dad got me an interview at the old folks home," he finally said.

Landry looked puzzled. "Wiping butts?"

"What is it with you and old people butts? No. In the kitchen. The pay's supposed to be pretty good and with my managerial experience they want to interview me for kitchen supervisor. It doesn't exactly sound like a dream job but…" he bit his lip, shrugging. "It's not just me I'm thinking about anymore."

Landry put his hand on his shoulder. "Matt?" he said. "You are going to be one hell of a dad."

Matt had to bite his lip again, this time to prevent himself from crying. "Well, I'm gonna try."


End file.
